Lord have mercy but it's been a long week. There's way too much that wouldn't interest anyone, and some things that might - but I'm not sure I have a lot of time to talk about it as Christmas Shopping II: The Revenge has to occur today or the threat of Slurpees will become an all too frightening reality.

The presentation Broadwater and I did last Saturday was fun and we got the Federal Conference equivalent of a standing ovation - that is, no one walked out, and no one fell asleep. In fact, several folks, sensing that something interesting was happening in our session, abandoned theirs for ours. Broadwater may claim he's not a good speaker, but I know different. He had those folks hanging on his every word and lusting after the next picture he was going to show. One woman - I kid you not - actually fluttered for him. It was rather amusing to see. I think my part came off well and we were both asked to keep our calendars open for future conferences in which we are the plenary session.

Imagine that - I could be a plenary session. It is to laugh.

Anyway - following the presentation I went and collected Jim and we proceeded to do some power shopping, though obviously not enough, since we are poised to do the same today.

The week was marked with a large number of conference calls which I must say are not my favourite thing to do - though calls with Len, Judy and JVQ are fun since we get to plan the cool stuff for the exhibition.

We had a ceremony at the Museum this week featuring folks from the Taiwanese embassy. They donated an incredible Yami canoe to us and it was an absolutely wonderful evening, full of interesting protocal and nervous museum staff who weren't sure if they were supposed to bow, shake hands or what. I started to call Lexy in the middle of the whole thing to get her advice - but it was almost over then.

Yesterday was the day of the never ending Holiday party. First was Pembroke Construction's party for a massive pig pickin' and oyster roast, then The Mariners' had it's party - which included a roast of several emplyees including yours truly. My staff made an incredible repro of the turret - complete with cannons and kitty - and pasted their pictures all over it so I would remember what they look like when I'm trapped in all these meetings and conference calls.

Then we had the JYF party where Jim was feted due to his recent promotion. He's now Director of Almost Everything Cool at Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center. Pretty impressive for a guy who started out as a 9 year old barefoot volunteer!

Today we trek northwards to view Mae, and do the holiday thing with Addie and Frank, Lexy and Mike and a bunch of other folks like Martin and Erin, Julien and Jo and maybe even Rich and Melody - though that's sounding less likely.

Well - that's not a very interesting entry - but at least I put it there! I'm doing a Leadership Coaching thingy at work now, and my coach is going to insist that I write everyday - so that's going to be a good incentive to keep this updated. She was very happy to hear that I had started this diary and wants me to incorporate it more into my daily life - which is I guess what a diary is all about - right?

Must go shop now.